Chair



Jan. 23, 1151 L. B. LAPLACE 2,539,023

CHAIR Filed July 30, 1948 INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS.

Patented Jan. 23, 1951 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CHAIR Louis B.Laplace, Ardmore, Pa.

Application July 30, 1948, Serial No. 41,560

Claims.

The present invention relates to a chair par ticularly useful forinvalids and for therapeutic purposes, especially the latter.

The nature, objects and advantages of the invention will be bestunderstood from the following description taken in connection with thedrawings, in which:

Fig. 1 is a more or less diagrammatic side elevation of a chairembodying my invention;

Fig. 2 is a section taken on the line 2-2 of Fig. l, and

Fig. 3 is an enlarged View illustrating a detail of the invention.

Referring now to the drawings, the chair frame comprises the four legsor standards 1, the two arms 8, two bottom side cross rails 9, twointermediate side rails I0, and the front and rear cross rails II andI2.

The seat indicated as a whole by the reference letter A comprises theseat proper I3 and a seat frame I4.

The seat and its frame are pivotally supported from the intermediateside cross rails I0 by means of the shaft I5, the seat and its framebeing laterally positioned by means of the washers or buttons I6 carriedby the shaft I5. The pivotal support is located approximately midway ofthe seat, considered fore and aft, and is desirably somewhat forward ofthe middle of the seat, for reasons which will later appear.

The back I'I of the chair has its lower end pivoted at I8 to the rearend of the frame I4, so that the back may rock forwardly or rearwardly.A pair of links I9 are pivotally connected at one end to the seat frameI4 and at the other end to the back, at a point approximately halfwaybetween its upper and lower ends.

.The foot rest is pivotally connected at 2l at its rear end to theforward end of the frame I4.

A pair of rocker or lever arms 22 are pivoted intermediate their ends tothe bottom side rails 9 by means of the shaft 23, the pivotal point ofsupport being desirably slightly to the rear of the middle of the siderails, considered fore and aft.

A pair of links 24 have their lower ends pivotally connected to the rearends of the lever arms 22 and their upper ends pivotally connected tothe rear end of the frame I4; and another pair of links 25 are pivotallyconnected at their lower ends to the forward ends of the lever arms 22and at their upper ends to the foot rest 20 about midway of the lengththereof.

In Fig. 1 the chair is shown with the foot rest 20 in lowered positionand the back I1 in its foremost position. In this position, the footrest is supported from the floor by means of the buttons 26 at theforward ends of the lever arms 22.

Assuming that the chair is occupied, the position of the back and of thefoot rest can be very readily adjusted by the occupant merely byshifting the weight of his body so as to shift the center of weight withrespect to the pivot point of the seat and its frame. This causes theseat and its fra-ine to rock about their pivotal axis. If the center ofweight is shifted tc the rear of the pivot point, the forward end of theseat will rise and the rear end sink, the amount of shift beingdetermined by the degree of shift of weight to the rear of the pivotalsupport.

As the seat and its frame rock about the said axis, the back swingstoward the rear and because of the lever arms and linkage provided bythe members 24, 22 and 25, the foot rest rises and the parts tend toassume the position indicated in dotted lines, in which position thefeet are higher than the seat. The chair is thus well adapted for thetreatment of patients suffering from circulatory troubles, such, forexample, as tend to cause stagnation in or insufficient iiow of blood tothe lower limbs. With such patients, because of the impairment of thenatural circulation, blood flow may be favored by raising the lowerlimbs from a low position to a high position in which gravity assists incausing blood to drain from the lower limbs. After a time, the body isshifted to bring the parts again to the full line position shown, inrwhich gravity now assists in supplying blood to the lower limbs. Asstated, the shifting of the parts is readily accomplished by shiftingthe body to shift the center of gravity of the occupant with referenceto the pivotal support of the seat and its frame.

For purposes of adjustment the links and the lever arms may be providedwith slots 2'! providing for 10st motion with respect to the pivotscrews 28 which I prefer to use for the pivots. These slots are showndiagrammatically in Figures l and 2. On inspection of Fig. 3, it will beseen that the sides of the slot are fiuted and that sleeves 29 areprovided which t the flutes and surround the screws. By removing thescrews and shifting the sleeves and again screwing the screws,adjustment may be effected without binding of the parts. In thisconnection, it will be appreciated that the screws need not be turneduntil the heads thereof bind.

I claim:

1. In a chair, a chair frame comprising front and rear standards, arms,bottom side rails, side rails intermediate the arms and bottom rails,and cross rails; a seat and its frame, pivotally supported on theintermediate side rails to rock about a horizontal axis intermediate theends of the seat considered fore and aft; a back pivotally supported atits lower end at the rear of the seat frame, a pair of angularlydisposed links pivotally connected at their lower ends to the seat frameintermediate its ends and pivotally connected at their upper ends to theback at a point above the lower end thereof; a foot rest pivoted at itsrear end to the front end of the seat frame; a pair of lever armspivotally connected intermediate their ends to the bottom side railsintermediate their ends, a second pair of angularly disposed Vlinkspivotally connected at their lower ends to the rear ends of the leverarms and at'their upper ends to the rear end of the seat frame, and athird pair of angularly disposed links pivotally connected at theirupper ends to the foot rest and at their lower ends to the forward endsof the lever arms.

2. The chair of claim 1, in which the seatY and its frame are pivoted onthe intermediate side 4 rails forward of the middle of the seatconsidered fore and aft.

3. The chair of claim 1, in which the seat and its frame are pivoted onthe intermediate side rails forward of the middle of the seat consideredfore and aft and the lever arms are pivoted to the bottom side rails tothe rear of the middle thereof.

4. The chair of claim l in which the links have lost motion connectionfor adjustment.

5. The chair of claim 1 in which the links have slots which are ilutedat the sides for adjustment and sleeves adapted to be positioned by theflutes are provided, and screws are employed for pivots.

LOUIS B. LAPLACE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le ofthis patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS

